BBQ Season

Forgive me, it's been two weeks since my last blog...

I've been out galavanting a lot now the weather has warmed up and been rushed off my feet getting ready for Christmas and attending various social functions and watering holes with increasing frequency. We're in our last week of work here and I'm flat out, which is keeping me out of trouble but not giving me time to think. Mum, Dad and Ruth get here in just over a week so I've been getting things ready for their visit and buying Christmas presents etc.

Two weekends ago I kayaked to Rangitoto with my boss. Rangitoto is the largest volcano in the Auckland region and is an almost perfect cone sticking up out of the bay. We paddled out there, left the boats on the beach (volcanic rocks and scrub!) and hiked up to the top. The weather when we left was clear blue skies and flat calm water, by the time we got to the top, sweating from the humidity and morning sun, we could see we were in for a rough journey home with the clouds above Auckland heading straight for us! We decided to chance it and ran down the volcano (which is covered in large volcanic rocks, shrubs and small trees) hopped in our kayaks and headed for home. Unfortunately the wind had got up and we had to paddle in quite an unpredicatable swell, I had a hard time keeping the kayak upright but we managed to get to the otherside in one piece if not a little out of breath.Auckland City Centre from Rangitoto

This weekend I've had hockey friends from the UK visiting so after taking most of the day to recover from a few drinks the night before we headed up to a place called Goat Island which is NZ's oldest marine reserve. We rented wet suits for the soft southern visitors and went for a snorkel for a few hours. The water isn't too cold (I should admit I was wearing my own wetsuit!) and we stayed in for an hour. The water was quite choppy and the visibility was only about 3-4m but we saw plenty of fish including Snapper and 3 Stingrays!

Am off surfing at a beach called Raglan this weekend before spending Christmas at my friend Evelien's place with her family before heading the airport on Boxing day to meet Mum, Dad and Ruth. Got to run now as am running late for hockey!

Lots of Love and have a good Christmas!

MOvember

That was the month that was known in New Zealand (and Australia I think) as Mo-vember. So called because it is the one month of the year when it becomes socially acceptable to sport a moustache, or Mo as they're called here. It's all in aid of Prostate cancer research and raises a lot of money each year. Alas I opted to buy a pair of specially designed boxer shorts as my contribution as I didn't have enough faith in my Mo growing abilities (with my boyish good looks...) and feared I might look like the policeman from Allo Allo for a month.

I'll try and re-cap what I got up to in Movember and stick a few pics up. The first weekend I went snorkelling for Crayfish (see pic below) which are like lobsters but without the claws. One of my underwater hockey mates and I went out for 3 1/2 hours and cuaght 6 between us. Came straight home and cooked them up for dinner, they taste like lobster too, and if you haven't had lobster it's like chicken...


I've also finished the first part of the CAD model for my new underwater hockey stick design and hope to mill out a prototype at work in December before continueing to develop the model on the computer before making a mold tool for it in January/February.

I drove down to part of the country called Taranaki which is about 5hours drive from Auckland and is famous for it's 'perfect mountain' which often double in films for Mt. Fuji because it's such a perfect cone shape. We stayed on a mate's parents' dairy farm and spent the weekend relaxing and galavanting around the countryside which included a spot of Dam Dropping. Roughly speaking this involves hurling yourself down a dam on a body board and that's about all there is to it! (see pic below) On the Saturday evening we attached a few fireworks to some clay birds and launched them out into the night for Kieran's brother to shoot at, i'm sure all the girls reading this will be tutting but for all the guys it was highly entertaining!
The 'Perfect Mountain' perfectly captured from the car as we were leaving...

In between all this galavanting I do actually go to work and earn a living but who wants to hear about working in an office? Missing you all in the run up to Christmas, hope you are well and will speak to you soon. Love Nick

After a hard day at the office...

I know that back home at this time of year the nights must be drawing in and the central heating systems are doing overtime so when thinking of what I could tell you about this week in New Zealand I had to think no further back than my journey home from work this evening.

The weather here this week has been consistently fine (sunny, occasional cloud, early 20's) so I thought it was about time that I kayaked home from work after kayaking to work a few months ago. 4:30 rolled around and I got changed and took the kayak off the car roof. After carting the kayak across the field I finally managed to find the spot on the edge of the company property where I'd been previously been able to transition from water to land. It's only possible to get in and out of the water right next to work at high tide otherwise it'd be a long trudge across the mud flats of the estuary to reach the trickle of water that flows through it at low tide.

After Sunday's 8km race the 3-4km paddle home flew by and was quite pleasant pottering along at my own pace, only a few clouds in the sky and the wind on my back all the way home. A number of people use the estuary for rowing/paddling after work so I saw several other boats on my way home. Landing on a beach it's only a short walk with the kayak (on a borrowed set of wheels) back to the house for a quick clean before parking it in the garage.

There are four of us living in the house at the moment and tonight was my turn to cook. Perfect night for a BBQ so I cooked some steak on the deck outside, added some potatoes, broccoli and gravy and we all ate outside accompanied by a glass of beer/wine. In NZ the BBQ seems to be an extension of the cooking facilities in the kitchen, most of them are gas so it's no problem to fire them up and get cracking. The sun has just set and although I've got to go to work tomorrow it doesn't seem such a bad thing after a relaxing night. I'll cycle to work in the morning as the tides aren't convenient for the paddle back, pop the bike in the back of the car and drive home.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Multisport Team

The Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Multisport team relax shortly after winning the Open Mens Team division of the Rodney Coast Challenge despite the adverse weather conditions...
The race consisted of a 10km run, a 30km road cycle, a 26km mountain bike stage and an 8km kayak (paddled by yours truely, that's me there on the right) and yes there were lots of other people competing, about 300!

Captains Log...

This is Nick Hobson, international (and semi unprofessional) underwater hockey player, globetrotter extrodinaire, occaisional designer of things, legend of sorts, jack of all trades, master of not a lot and a nice guy when not submerged in chlorinated water signing on to publicise his whereabouts, adventures, mis-adventures, poor spelling ability, diabolical grammer and general banter about his life to his nearest and dearest and any other punters that dare to read his ramblings.